NCJ Number
185927
Date Published
1998
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This chapter considers how to maximize completeness and minimize error when interviewing a child witness.
Abstract
The chapter delineates factors affecting the incompleteness and inconsistency of children's memory reports and describes two innovative approaches, narrative elaboration and cognitive interviewing, to elicit more complete and consistent memory reports from children. Both approaches strive to assist children in narrating an event more fully with less need for leading questions, thus reducing the risk of contamination. The article's discussion of interviewing principles designed to maximize the completeness of children's reports is based primarily on results of experimental studies of children's free recall and not on the realities of work conditions on the front lines. The article concludes that researchers can continue to develop innovative approaches to expand a child's initial retelling, without adversely affecting accuracy. With developmentally sensitive, empirically tested, and forensically sound procedures, children should be able to provide both reliable and meaningful information to decision makers in the field. Appendix, references